Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Wednesday debunked “news” of his resignation amid the political drama in his state, as opposition leader Jai Ram Thakur “predicted” the Congress government “will fall today or tomorrow”.
“This is a drama created by the BJP. I am a fighter and will continue to fight; I have not reisgned and I don’t know where this news is coming from. We have a majority in the House. Nobody has asked me to resign, nor have I proposed to do so,” the chief minister said.
The fresh scramble for power in the hill state was triggered after six Congress MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday (February 27). Things seemed to take a turn for the worse earlier in the day, when PWD minister Vikramaditya Singh resigned from the state cabinet. He said there had been attempts to “humiliate and undermine” him, while he had supported the Sukhu-led government despite “reservations”.
‘Today or tomorrow…’
The BJP, meanwhile, is sitting on a dharna outside the legislative assembly after 15 of its MLAs were suspended and the House adjourned. Thakur alleged that the BJP MLAs were thrown out of the House by marshals.
“The Congress does not have the majority required to pass the budget and, to pass it, they suspended 15 BJP MLAs. We were sent out of the house by marshals; it’s very unfortunate what happened today. The government has lost the moral responsibility to be in power,” he said.
Referring to the Congress debacle from the day before, he said rebel and independent MLAs have supported the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls. “This government will fall, today or tomorrow,” he added.
But, Sukhu, during his press conference, assured the media that the Congress government will complete five years. He claimed that some BJP MLAs were in touch with his party. He also said the budget will be passed and all the “conspiracies” against his government will be exposed.
“Budget mein Congres party ki jeet hogi (the Budget will be passed by the Congress government)… We will expose all conspiracies against us,” he added.
About Vikramaditya’s resignation, the CM said he was like a brother, so he will listen to all grievances. “I will speak to him and listen to his grievances… He is like my brother and I will sort out all issues with him,” he added.
“The budget will be passed today itself and the Congress is united. The BJP is spreading rumours about my resignation so that they can break our MLAs. That will never happen,” he added. While having resigned from the cabinet to think over why the Congress suffered a defeat, Vikramaditya has decided to support the budget.
Sukhu may sound confident at this moment, but the crisis-like situation in which he finds himself today has come about because he chose to ignore the tell-tale signs of trouble and simmering discontent within party ranks. The rebellion during the Rajya Sabha polls was led by MLAs Sudhir Sharma and Rajendra Rana, who shared a major grouse – they were not made ministers in the state government.
Sharma and Rana got four other MLAs to rebel — Inderdutt Lakhanpal, Davinder Kumar Bhutto, Ravi Thakur and Chaitanya Sharma. — while three independent MLAs, including one from Sukhu’s home district of Hamirpur, also voted for the BJP.
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